CONFERENCE: Learning about the Law: Historical Perspectives on Public Legal Education for Laypersons and Underprivileged Groups (Helsinki: University of Helsinki, 20-21 MAY 2025)

(source: Helsinki University)

LEARNING ABOUT THE LAW: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON PUBLIC LEGAL EDUCATION FOR LAYPERSONS AND UNDERPRIVILEGED GROUPS 

20-21 May 2025, University of Helsinki

Venue: Porthania building, room P673 (address: Yliopistonkatu 3, 6th floor)

Tuesday 20 May 2025 

9.15-9.30 Registration 

9.30-9.45 Opening of the conference 

9.45-10.45 Keynote lecture (chair: Marianne Vasara-Aaltonen)

Elsa Trolle Önnerfors (Lund University): Women educating women: the first female lawyers in Sweden and their part in legal education to the public in the early 20th century

10.45-10.55 Break

10.55-12.25 Panel 1 (chair: Mia Korpiola) 

Alessia Maria Di Stefano (University of Catania): ‘What Italy does for its emigrants’: public and private initiatives to promote legal knowledge of emigration laws during the liberal period (1870-1920) among emigrants 

Talia Diskin (University of Haifa): Shaping Legal Consciousness Through Children’s Media: A Historical Analysis of Israeli Children’s Weeklies (1948-1958) 

Charles Ho Wang Mak (Robert Gordon University): Legal Education and Sign Language: Historical Perspectives on Deaf Access to Justice

 

12.25-13.10 Lunch: Porthania 6th floor

13.10-14.40 Panel 2 (chair: Kate Bradley)

Joaquim Verges (University of Bordeaux): Labour law magazines: a literary genre easily understood for workers (1890s-1914) 

Virginia Amorosi (University of Naples Federico II): ‘A uso degli operai’. Legal education and social legislation in Italy between the 19th and 20th centuries 

Marianne Vasara-Aaltonen (University of Helsinki): Educating the Working Class: Newspapers, Calendars, and Books as Sources of Legal Knowledge in Early-20th-Century Finland

14.40-15.00 Coffee 

15.00-16.00 Panel 3 (chair: Frederik Dhondt)

Mia Korpiola (University of Turku): Legal Knowledge for Finnish Housewives: Articles on Law in the Women's Magazine 'Kotiliesi' 1922-1939 

Piotr Owsiak (City Office of Cracow): Liechtenstein’s Afterwar Women’s Associations – Activity & Struggle for Voting Rights 

16.30-17.30 (optional): guided tour of the National Library of Finland 

18.30→ Conference dinner: Restaurant Salutorget

Wednesday 21 May 2025 

9.15-10.45 Panel 4 (chair Bruno Debaenst)

Airton Ribeiro (Scuola Superiore Meridionale): Lay Advocates in Portuguese America: Unraveling the Acquisition of Legal Literacy in the Colonial Context 

Emmanuel Berger (ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon): How can laypersons be turned into judges? A study of strategies and methods of public legal education for criminal jurors; France, 1789-1848 

Rafael I. Pardo (Washington University in St. Louis): Publicizing Bankruptcy Rights Through the Antebellum Party Press 

10.45-11.00 Break 

11.00-12.30 Panel 5 (chair: Mia Korpiola)

Frederik Dhondt (Vrije Universiteit Brussel): Educating the Good Citizen: the Belgian Electoral Exam (1883-1893) 

Marco Castelli (University of Milan): Popularizing Constitutional Principles: The Educational and State-Building Functions of the ‘Festa dello Statuto’ in Liberal Italy 

Kati Katajisto (University of Helsinki): Universal and equal municipal suffrage reform in Finland – Municipal councils as forums for practical learning of legal knowledge 

12.30-14.00 Lunch: Restaurant Sunn 

14.00-15.30 Panel 6 (chair: Elsa Trolle Önnerfors) 

Michael H. Hoeflich (University of Kansas) & John Lewis Moreland (Stanford University): Pocket-Sized Education: How Small Legal Handbooks Impacted the Legal Knowledge of Everyday Americans in the Early Republic 

Bruno Debaenst (Uppsala University): Follow the guide! The case of the 1843 “Belgium as she is” guidebook by Henry Robert Addison (1805-1876) 

Filippo Rossi (University of Milan): State Building and Popular Media in Liberal Italy (1850-1919). Exploring the Role of Popular Magazines and Encyclopedias in Spreading Legal Knowledge 

15.30-15.50 Coffee 

15.50-16.50 Keynote lecture (chair: Marianne Vasara-Aaltonen) 

Kate Bradley (University of Kent): Faring well in modern times: the dynamics of social change, citizenship and the law in the late 19th and early 20th century 

16.50-17.00 Closing remarks 

19.00→ Dinner: Restaurant Rodolfo